


love is using your first name

by shinkaicity



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, this is really fucking gay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-31
Updated: 2017-08-31
Packaged: 2018-12-22 00:50:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,270
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11956251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinkaicity/pseuds/shinkaicity
Summary: Kanata invites Midori to walk on the beach with him; Midori reflects on his feelings towards Kanata.





	love is using your first name

**Author's Note:**

> OK SO BEFORE WE START I WROTE THIS FOR MY FRIEND’S BIRTHDAY!! She dragged me into this ship so I thought it was only fitting that I wrote about it in return. I’m happy I got this done in time for her birthday!! ♪( ´▽｀)

After hours and hours of practice, exerting even _more_ effort by walking on the sunset-lit beach was definitely not what Midori had in mind. An afternoon spent with the loud, always-cheerful members of RYUSEITAI, as much as he denied it, wasn’t quite a bad thing, but it was definitely a _tiring_ thing. That captain of theirs seemed to always have a boundless amount of energy, his voice permanently stuck on an outdoor volume. It was exhausting, to say the very _least_.

The invite to a walk on the beach wasn’t unwelcome, but it was definitely not what he had planned to be doing. His usual after-school routine involved him going home and greeting all his mascot characters, who were hopefully where he left them; his older brother seemed to have made a hobby of “accidentally” misplacing them, or messing up their order on the bed when he wasn’t looking, which only helped to further his bad moods. Normally he’d decline the offer, making some excuse about having to help out at his family’s store, but today...he just couldn’t bring himself to do it.

Maybe it was because of _who_ had asked him.

Turning his gaze up from the footprints in the sand that he had unconsciously been following, he watched his ever-mysterious blue-haired senpai walk in front of him, taking his time to watch the ocean as the sun continued to set. Kanata Shinkai. Co-Captain of RYUSEITAI. The rumored “monster” of a senpai who was secretly part mermaid, who drowned children in the fountain, who raised monster fish in his clubroom...the theories went on and on. Midori knew they were all just baseless rumors, though — he considered Kanata to be one of the kindest, most soothing people he had ever had the pleasure of meeting. Talking to him always felt like getting in bed after a long, hectic day. His presence alone was soothing, almost as if the air around him somehow remained eternally calm, and his slow speech thankfully meant almost no energy was required to talk to him — the polar opposite of their unit leader. From the mascot characters they exchanged, to the hugs Kanata allowed whenever Midori didn’t have one of his treasured cushions nearby. Their unusual closeness might give people the wrong idea, but Midori didn’t mind if people thought their relationship was like that, to be completely honest.

Oh, that’s the other thing — Midori was maybe, just _maybe_ , a little bit in love with his senpai.

When he first realized it, of course, he was in denial. Who wouldn’t be? Kanata Shinkai wasn’t exactly the most normal person. His odd behavior normally ended up driving people away, but Midori thought the way his face would light up talking about the ocean was cute; did that make him weird? Or maybe Midori was just overthinking his own feelings — Maybe everyone felt their heart flutter when they saw Kanata smile. Maybe that was one of his secret oddball powers. Maybe he had just imagined that Kanata’s compliments always seemed to bring him up more than anyone else’s. Maybe Kanata’s smiles when he caught Midori staring were just his eyes playing tricks. His brain was deceiving him because of his wishful thinking that maybe, just maybe, something in his eyes could convey to Kanata what he was too shy to say in words. After all, even though everybody would always compliment his looks, it had to be out of pity, right? His height was annoying, and he could pick out eighty things wrong with his face or body shape. But Kanata didn’t care about that.

He came to realize, over time, that Kanata’s compliments didn’t feel like they were out of pity. Somewhere along the line, Midori had stopped naturally dismissing his words like he had with everyone else’s, stopped using his own self-loathing as an excuse to deflect compliments one after the other. He realized he could feel the genuineness in his senpai’s voice whenever Kanata would reassure him about his height, telling him that it really wasn’t bad, he _promised_ , a smile all over his face as he said he thought Midori was _beautiful_ the way he was.

Kanata thought that he was beautiful.

There they went again; his thoughts were running wild. He couldn’t seem to help it lately. Thinking about seeing Kanata helped make the daily grind of boring classes and exhausting (albeit fun) practice more bearable. Shinobu had even commented that Midori was saying he wanted to die a lot less lately, to which he stuttered out a completely fake excuse about some new mascot characters, quickly removing himself from the conversation.

“It’s because of Shinkai-senpai.” How would he ever say something as embarrassing as that out loud? Even worse, if he couldn’t even talk to someone unrelated about how he felt, then how would he ever possibly manage to tell Kanata? Regardless of how he felt or how many nights he spent with his face buried in a pillow, reciting the same lines over and over, he didn’t think he would ever have to courage to use them. Not in this lifetime, not even if the chance was handed to him on a silver platter. Besides, Kanata probably liked someone else who deserved it. Maybe it was that other third year from his club, or maybe it was even one of the other members of their unit...

Preoccupied with his thoughts, Midori had been walking on autopilot, not noticing that Kanata had suddenly stopped to look back at him. He ended up seeing far too late, crashing into his senior (who didn’t move an inch; much to Midori’s surprise, _he_ was actually the one who ended up stumbling backwards, falling onto the sand). As he shook off the daze of being pulled out of his head so suddenly, his insecurities all came rushing in. Oh god, what if he thought Midori had zoned out because he didn’t want to be here? What if he never invited Midori to do this again? Maybe the impact actually hurt Kanata because of his stupid height? Just as he looked up to the other, an excuse on the tip of his tongue, whatever he had been about to say was stopped in his throat. Kanata was smiling at him, holding his hand out, the sunset somehow making him look even more stunning than normal. Midori was frozen in place, not even bothering to hide the fact that he was staring.

A few seconds passed before Midori finally reached out and took the other’s hand, pulling himself up and dusting off his shorts with one hand, frowning at the ridiculous amount of sand that fell out. Kanata let out a soft laugh, only making Midori’s face burn even more from embarrassment (and maybe something else, too; his laugh was awfully cute). The blue haired boy turned towards the ocean, still smiling.

“the ocean is beautiful, don’t you think?” Midori couldn’t tell. He was still staring at Kanata’s face, a sense of longing in his eyes that Midori couldn’t quite figure out, the warm orange light of the sunset reflecting on a soft yet incredibly bright green.

“Ah, I guess so,” is what he meant to say, before he realized something else about his current situation, other than the fact that it seemed like it was ripped straight from one of those cheesy romantic movies.

Kanata hadn’t let go of his hand.

“Not as beautiful as you.”

The words slipped out before he could stop them; they were only supposed to be a thought, they were never meant to be heard. It was like the lump of apologies in his throat somehow morphed into...whatever _that_ was, because it sure wasn’t a good pickup line, he knew that much. As the other boy turned to stare at Midori with wide eyes, still somehow reflecting the sparkle of the sea next to them, the full weight of what he had just said came crashing down. He was such an _idiot_ , that wasn’t even a proper confession, and now his brain was racing as fast as possible to come up with an excuse.

“Oh my god, Shinkai-senpai, I’m so s —“

His string of apologies was cut off by a finger over his lips, effectively shushing him. The look of surprise that had previously been on Kanata’s face had now been replaced with a knowing smile and a familiar look in his eyes. Midori recognized it in an instant — It was the same look he had when he called Midori beautiful, the same one from when he offered Midori a place to sleep on his shoulder, the same one from when Midori had given him a mascot keychain in the hospital, just like Kanata had done for him when they first called themselves “friends.”

Midori realized with a start that they were _far_ too close, his eyes widening as he realized just how close Kanata’s face was, their hands still clasped together like if they let go they would never get the chance again. Just as his brain had managed to fully register that, Kanata’s lips were already on his.

Thankfully, Midori had enough sense left to close his eyes.

The first thing he noticed is Kanata’s lips were soft. It’s not that he wasn’t expecting them to be, it was more that he hadn’t known _what_ to expect. The kiss wasn’t rough or needy by any means. It was more slow and romantic, it was Kanata’s way of telling Midori “don’t worry, I feel the same way.” It was the simple, wordless communication of the fact that they were both in _love_ , and in that moment Midori didn’t think he could get any happier than this.

When the older boy eventually pulled away, Midori was left stunned, not yet fully processing what had just occurred. He wanted to do it again, he knew that much, but he wasn’t sure what had happened to get him to where he never thought he would be in his life. His brain took pity on him, apparently, and gave him a short summary — He had been on the beach with Kanata. He had fallen down. He had told Kanata he was beautiful like he was in some cheesy romance novel, and then Kanata had kissed him.

_Kanata had kissed him._

His face begin to heat up as he quickly buried it in Kanata’s shoulder, wrapping his arms around the shorter boy as he let out a soft whine. A flurry of questions was rushing through his head, none of which he was able to fully articulate at the time.

Was that a yes? Does this mean we’re _boyfriends_ now? Do we have to tell people? Can we do that again? What do boyfriends even do?

Are you sure you want someone like me?

He was crying now, he noticed, although he wasn’t sure if it was from his insecurities taking over or just from happiness. He held onto Kanata like he was a life preserver in the ocean, letting his tears fall. He knew he had to say something, but he wasn’t sure if he could.

“I — Shinkai-senpai, i —“

“just kanata is fine, midori.”

“Er, Kanata...I…I lo...”

He couldn’t finish his sentence, couldn’t get the words out through the tears, couldn’t express just how _happy_ he was that Kanata had chosen him in a world full of other candidates who would undoubtedly be better. He wanted to let Kanata know just how thankful he was for _everything_ , wanted to let him know just how much he had done to help Midori grow. Even though he was crying at the moment, he hoped Kanata could tell that he was still smiling, amazed at the prospect that his feelings were returned. He didn’t want to give off the impression his feelings weren’t welcome, that was the opposite of what he wanted — he just didn’t know how else to handle everything that had happened so _quickly_. He felt a hand running along his back in small circles trying to calm him down, he remembered the kiss they had just a moment ago, he remembered that he was _loved_ , that the boy he like actually liked him back. All his stress, all his hypothetical endings to this he thought up where he would have to face rejection, and Kanata ended up loving him back. At the moment, he wasn’t sure what else to do except stand there and cry. Whether it was out of joy or fear didn’t matter to him anymore — the reason was the same, and the reason was the only part that mattered to him.

He was in love with Kanata, and Kanata was in love with him.

When his tears finally died down, and after a stream of apologies for his sudden emotional outburst, the two ended up sitting side by side on the shoreline, watching the waves lap at sand as the sun crawled below the horizon. Midori’s head was rested on Kanata’s shoulder, mostly tired from the wave of emotions that had happened earlier, eyes still a little bit red from crying. Their hands were interlocked, not caring if anyone saw them. They weren’t doing anything wrong, anyway — it was just two boys in love, simple as that. Kanata chuckled softly as the boy on his shoulder readjusted his position, to which Midori replied with simply a soft “hmm?”, too tired to form a full sentence at the moment. Kanata let out a happy sigh, and Midori felt a hand run through his hair before coming to rest on top of his head.

“i love you too, midori.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> im on twitter @cyrodotexe!


End file.
